Construction Management Newsletter - Spring 2021

A newsletter for students and alumni of Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Construction MANAGEMENT Spring 2021

In this issue: 2 Joe Egan’s new book 2 MCA Leadership

Academy 3 General Equipment

Demo Day 3 New Survey

Equipment

MSUM’s CM degree is now offered on-campus & online!

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SUM launched the CM program online fall 2020. This was a pre-COVID decision, focusing primarily on transfer students. Online CM transfer student, Jarod Lund, from Itasca Community College chose MSUM’s CM online program because of the program’s reputation and flexibility. Jarod states, “The instructors are great and very willing to help if I have questions! They answer questions that come up precisely and explain things thoroughly so it is understandable and relatable to how it will be used in my future job.”

4 New Faculty Member

Changes due to COVID-19

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any of you are probably wondering what it’s been like for a student this year. The CM program has maintained face-to-face classes for the 2020-2021 academic year. Fall was a bit different than normal, having to split classes to meet social distancing guidelines and seeing our students only one day a week. All of the learning material was online for students if needed. However, spring semester we’ve resumed our face-to-face classes without having to split classes. Our high expectations have remained the same, requiring rigorous class projects, the Capstone project, and the AC exam. Thanks to our industry partners, our students saw numerous local projects as well!

Construction MANAGEMENT

MSUM Alumni and IAB Board Member Joe Egan new book “Construction Project Management – How the Great Ones Do It”

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uccessful contractors realize that customer loyalty is not automatically granted; it is earned. They understand that project management is very important.

They know that their best strategic plan includes respect and problem solving. The worst strategic plan is finger-pointing and betrayal.

Successful contractors are also mature enough to realize that problems do not go away but provide a great opportunity for them to look good when they are solved.

Everyday new discoveries transform what was once exciting and nearly unbelievable into obsolescence. I recall when after spending my first seven years in construction, I reached the level of knowing enough to be dangerous. I also learned early on that projects that start well usually end well and projects that start poorly usually end poorly. Getting off on the wrong foot makes it hard to get back on the right one.

Whether good or bad, the outcomes are usually caused by the manifestation of the self-fulfilling prophecy. This occurs when you carry the attitude and act in a manner to justify your predicted outcome. Many successful customer engagements evolve into close, personal friendships. High expectation is a discipline that keeps you from the temptation of just doing satisfactory. Keeping up with your competitors while not doing anything better will eventually lead to failure.

MSUM Alumni Alumnus, Ben Meland (2006) with Enclave Development, will be the spring 2021 graduation speaker for the College of Business, Analytics, and Communications.

We are proud to have a CM alumnus represent our program!

MCA Leadership Academy

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innesota Construction Association hosted the Construct*ium Future Leaders Challenge on April 27th. This is a competition hosted by MCA contractors for regional schools. MSUM’s junior class and one senior Capstone group participated in at least one of the events. Below is the list of events and students who placed. CONGRATULATIONS to those who placed! ▸ Freeform Presentation Competition ▸ Table Topics ▸ Negotiation Skills Competition > 2nd place – Al Lovelace ▸ Job Interview > 1st place – Chris Ennen > 2nd place - Cody Anderson & Nate Thein > 3rd place – Jalyn Bauer ▸ The Pursuit > 3rd place – MSUM (Olivia Januszewski, Tyler Schmidt, Bryan Neels, Carter Wolf, Louis Wagner, Austin Mehr)

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Construction MANAGEMENT

SPRING 2021

Congratulations to one of our MSUM Alumni and industry board member Jason Hellerud at Wanzek Construction for being Project Manager of the year for Wanzek Construction. Jason completed five projects with 178 foundations installed for one of Wanzek’s largest strategic clients. Congrats!

Minnesota State University Moorhead

ASC Region 4 Student Competition This past October, we had one team attend the student ASC competition virtually. We had a team compete in Design/Build Division. Our team placed 4th, students had a good time and learned a lot.

General Equipment Demo Day

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all semester, General Equipment hosted our seniors for a demo day to operate equipment. Each student got the opportunity to operate an articulated truck, pay loader, dozer, and excavator. Let’s just say this was one of their favorite field trips! Thanks to Micah Tysver (2004), who is one of our industry board members, for creating this opportunity for our students.

At the end April, this same opportunity was open for our juniors, sophomores, and freshman. General Equipment hosted another demo day in conjunction with North Dakota Construction Leadership Council. Thank you General Equipment!

New Survey Equipment

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onstruction Management received new survey equipment from another college in our system that will enable us to put some of the most industry utilized technology into the hands of our students.

Pursuit Competition This is our third year participating in the Pursuit Competition hosted

by Ryan Companies USA. In this competition students respond to an RFP. Design is complete, so a detailed schedule and estimate are part of the proposal. Redwood Construction (Olivia Januszewski, Austin Mehr, Tyler Schmidt, Louis Wagner, Bryan Neels, & Carter Wolf) presented via WebEx to Ryan Company judges on April 26th and took third place! Congratulation’s seniors!

We have had a limited number of Trimble M3 Total Stations requiring up to 4 students in our Survey classes to share a single Total Station during a lab.

The addition of another Trimble M3 will provided additional hands-on time and utilization of total stations throughout our survey course.

We received a new Trimble S5 Robotic Total Station which will provides students a learning experience with technology that will enable them to measure greater distances and acquire data faster than a traditional total station. With the new Trimble Tablets, students will be able to individually collect data and layout points as you would on a construction site.

We also received a new Trimble R2 integrated GNSS system. This will introduce students to how industry can utilize satellite technology to deliver between submeter and centimeter positioning accuracy in real-time.

Engaging students in this higher technology leads to thought provoking analysis of the different technologies and the appropriate selection of technology for specific work.

Construction Management is excited about this new equipment acquisition which will further prepare our students for careers in industry!

SPRING 2021

Construction MANAGEMENT

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Construction MANAGEMENT

New Faculty Member

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e welcomed new faculty member, Jay Cournia, August 2020. Jay previously worked for Comstock Construction, RHR Construction, Jordahl Custom Homes and Obermiller Nelson Engineering. Jay also taught online estimating at NDSCS for three years. Jay is teaching Contractor Quality Management, Project Administration, Documents & Specifications, Planning & Scheduling and Capstone. We are excited to have Jay join the CM Program.

Fall 2021 Alumni Gathering & Retirement Party!

Jay Cournia

Project Site Tours & Do not Be a Stranger: A special Thank you to the following industry partners for allowing our students to be onsite and tour their jobsite or facility: Taracon Precast, Gehrtz Construction Services, Aggregate Industries, Gast Construction, True North Steel, R.A. Morton, Kilbourne Group, General Equipment Do you have a project in the F/M area for students to take a tour at? Would you like to present to a class on a specific topic? Are you willing to judge Capstone final presentations? Does your company have internship and employment opportunities for students? If so, please contact Rachel.axness@mstate.edu / Jay.cournia@mnstate.edu / John.green@mnstate.edu We love to hear from our alumni and industry partners to get them involved and active within our program!

We are planning a retirement party for Scott Seltveit for fall 2021! Scott spent 30 years at MSUM and was a leader of the CM program. He retired July 2020 and COVID put his retirement party on pause. Look for the invite coming this fall. We hope to see you there!

Know someone interested in a CM degree?

If you know of someone interested in a CM degree, send them our way!

Please have them contact Rachel at: rachel.axness@mnstate.edu

Connect with Us: mnstate.edu/construction-management

Facebook facebook.com/msumcm

Thank you Taracon Precast for the tour!

Thank you, MSUM alumnus Connor Koppang from Kilbourne Group for the tour!

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MSUM Construction Management

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